School Context
This case study is from a small secondary school with around 750 pupils. The school has a high number of students on the SEN register and places strong emphasis on kindness, inclusion, and pastoral care.
Engagement with LEHSS
Staff in the pastoral team have engaged extensively with LEHSS over the past year, accessing a wide range of training, consultations, and leadership support.
- Staff have taken part in multiple training sessions, senior mental health lead workshops, and compassionate schoolwork.
- The pastoral lead shares LEHSS materials and shares slides and exercises with staff, adapting them for inset days or pastoral training sessions.
Reflections on LEHSS Support
The pastoral lead felt that LEHSS input is “excellent, always practical, respectful, and thought-provoking.” One specific thing that has been taken from LEHSS training is the ‘Three Emotional Control Systems’ model, of which they said: “It’s so simple but so powerful. I use it with staff, parents, and even my own kids. It’s something I can apply to anything.”
The pastoral lead praised the quality of materials, and has used these to laminate sheets and slide packs that are displayed around school. They also expressed a strong interest in the Compassionate Schools Hub, and the value it could add to mapping the training and support the staff team has accessed and can access in the future.
Impact on Students and Staff
They noted tangible benefits for staff from accessing LEHSS training and consultations, including:
- Increased understanding of parental behaviours and motivations, improving relationships and communication with families.
- Use of growth mindset and threat system concepts with students to improve self-awareness and resilience.
- Knowledge from the training on emotions, mental health and the brain is provided in a way that is accessible to students and staff have been able to share this effectively: “Kids love learning how their brains work.”
- “We started getting designated teachers to do simple ‘get to know you’ activities with pupils. It helped strengthen relationships and calm things down.”
- Impacts on individual students have also been noticed, for example: “A student who’d been repeatedly suspended, after targeted support and structured follow-up, his suspensions dropped to zero and attendance improved by 90%.”
“What LEHSS offers is practical, evidence-based, and deeply human.”